It depends on what major you want to change into – basically how popular that major is relative to the department’s capacity.
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Understood. I tried to allude to that with my question that “I don’t know how impacted those other majors are compared to what your D decides she’s interested in?” Chrisntine’s D was accepted into one of the most impacted majors at SLO, done on purpose to potentially make it easier to switch majors. If any case should fall into that 30% statistic, it seems her D’s would be one. I was sharing that info since I didn’t know if @chrisntine had heard that figure.
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Web searches of “[college] change major [major]” for each of the possible majors to change to and each of the possible colleges may be more helpful in seeing whether there are significant barriers to some majors at any of the colleges under consideration.
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Biological Sciences is considered, by one meausre, the 3rd most difficult major to get into as a FTF (First Time Freshman).
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To be honest, I have been more stressed out for all of your kids than I was for my own daughter last year!
I’m so happy your daughter has so many great choices. I wish her all the best in her college career!
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Thank you so much, it’s really hard to know what’s just the reputation of the school and what it’s really like for the kids. We’re going to the SLO Admitted Student Day next week, but sounds like such a huge event, I don’t know how many individual questions they can answer.
Like you all are saying, it definitely seems to depend on which major they’re changing into. She and I are asking on various forums (in addition to asking the schools, reading their websites etc) to get a general sense of what the reality is like at each school.
What schools has your D narrowed down to? And what major? I remember we had a lot of overlap so maybe they’ll end up at the same place! 
Good luck to your D and thanks for sharing the info!
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Thank you! We are slowly but sure looking through each school’s official requirements and asking them directly, but it does help to hear how hard it is for students to actually navigate the requirements. Thanks again!
Hmm, interesting didn’t expect Psych to be first - thanks for sharing! Of the SLO majors, my D said in addition to Software Engineering (what she was admitted to), she’d be interested in these areas for possible major or minor:
Aero Engineering (Eng)
Art & Design (LA)
Comp Sci (Eng)
Comp Eng (Eng)
Econ (Biz)
Graphic Communication (LA)
Liberal Studies (S&M)
Music (LA)
Philosophy (LA)
Physics (S&M)
Psychology (LA)
Sociology (LA)
Astronomy (minor) (S&M)
Computing for Interactive Arts (minor) (Eng)
Science & Risk Communication (minor) (LA)
Studio Art (minor) (LA)
The bad thing is the list is long so she has a lot of majors to check out requiring declaration requirements! But it also means she found a lot of other areas of interest in case SE doesn’t work out. She’s nervous about no Neuro/Cognitive Science not being available, and it doesn’t seem their Psych major really covers that (plus Psych being the hardest to get into wouldn’t help!).
Haha, I have that effect on people – my stress is contagious! 
Thanks for all the advice you’ve given me, I’ve learned a lot from your experience from last year!
When I said I was stressed out for all of your kids I didn’t mean just your kids, but everyone’s kids going through this process this year. The second hand stress was greater than the first hand stress
I’m not really sure I learned much last year but I thank you for your kind words. I hope you enjoy visiting CalPoly. From what you have said about your daughter, I think she would be happy there. Between my own kid’s experiences and those of all of her friends that I still see over breaks, they all seem happy to be where they landed. Freshman year is not always the funnest of times but in general they are all happy college students and (fingers crossed) I haven’t heard of a single one wanting to be anywhere other than where they currently are.
As far as switching majors, students do this all the time. One of my daughter’s room mates has changed her declared major twice already within the College of L&S (she’s still a freshman).
This is an exciting time in your daughter’s life full of possibilities. I’m thrilled for her and all of the other kids embarking on this journey. The poem “Ithaca” by C.P. Cavafy, one of my favorite poets, is a good reminder that it’s not so much the destination that matters but the journey itself.
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I would love it for so many reasons if she lands there! Fortunately, I think she’ll be happy at any of the schools she’s narrowed it down to.
Great reminder. Thank you again for your kind and insightful posts. 
Oh I hope that you and others who are going to ASD will come back and post impressions - it’s just a few days away, so exciting! If senior prom wasn’t on April 8th, smack dab in the middle of SLO ASD, then we would have been there. Given how HS life has been so messed the past two years, kiddo is eager for a normal HS milestone to experience.
Down to four schools here: CU Boulder (in-state), UW Seattle, Cal Poly SLO, and Harvey Mudd, engineering to all. So hard to decide, but hopefully in a couple weeks we will have a solid #1 choice. Right now I wake up with a different #1 choice each day. 
I don’t know about you, but this being the first (and for us, only) time going through this, I don’t even know what detailed questions I should be focused on finding the answers to. I don’t know what I don’t know. I feel like there will be some issue that will rear its ugly head, and I’ll end up feeling well duh that’s something I should have thought about, but I don’t have any clue right now what that might be. We’ve started looking into what the student health insurance policies are at each school and that’s been eye-opening. Another row to add to the spreadsheet!
Hope you have good school visits this month, and your undecided D finds the school that can accommodate her varied interests. She has some really good options! We went to CU Boulder’s ASD this weekend, and my kid sat through the Mech E session and came out feeling that maybe Mech E is not the right choice (!). And school hasn’t even started yet. 
lol The nice thing with an in-state school is that we don’t feel as stressed about if it takes 5 years to graduate since it costs less to begin with.
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Omg, yeah, no way can these kids miss prom or any other major hs events! We’re actually leaving the SLO ASD early so my D can get to a robotics tournament. They had just flown to and landed for a tournament in Mar 2020 when we locked down and they had to fly back. So this is her first time to be on a travel team in 2 years. They’ve got just a few months to squeeze in 2 years of missed hs. 
And whoa, those are all amazing options, no wonder your #1 changes every day! I’m guessing your kid’s list is one of those you can’t go wrong with any choice. Would all the schools allow a switch out of Mech E if it ends up not being the right major? I guess it’d be a matter of what they’d want to switch into like my D. 
And I’d guess Harvey Mudd would give the broadest, most flexible experience? If it were us, we’d have to figure out why/how the other schools could beat Mudd (besides cost) cuz that’s always been a favorite of mine.
I’m not great at taking notes at in person events but will try and will update on the SLO thread. This is our first college kid too, so I feel pretty late to all this actually. I don’t know what questions to ask either, so I’m stalking all the threads here and continuing this mega-long thread! Didn’t think about health insurance, not a dealbreaker but something to be aware of – adding that to the spreadsheet now!
Hope you’re having fun getting ready for prom! 
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Can’t wait to hear how your trip East goes. My son has narrowed down to WPI or Pitt and I swear his preference changes every day. It’s not going to be possible for us to visit again, so I think at the end of the day it’s going to be some kind of gut decision. Both are good fits for him for different reasons. I think he, like your daughter, really can be happy at a wide number of places. It’s nice to have choices, but it really does add an extra element of anxiety when there’s no clear front runner.
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Hope you have fun and learn lots at SLO ASD, and good luck to your D on her robotics tournament! So glad she’s getting to do it in person!
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I hope it was a great trip and Robotics is going well for her! Please share an update when you get a chance. She will thrive at any of her choices.
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Thanks for the well wishes everyone! Over the last 2 weeks we visited UCSC, SLO, Wesleyan, WPI, Pitt, Rochester! We got back Sunday night and I’m still recovering from exhaustion but she was back to school Monday then left town early Wednesday for another robotics tournament.
Not complaining. Really grateful not just for her college options but the ability to visit them, and especially that she can do robotics in person, will go to a prom and an in-person graduation. Things the 2020 and 2021 seniors didn’t get at her school.
I didn’t have a chance to de-brief her on all the details, but here’s my rundown of our visits (in chronological order):
UCSC - D loved the beautiful setting, happy and kind students, and very progressive school vibe. Downtown was cute (though we were harassed by a mentally ill woman), but not walking distance from dorms which she’d prefer (there’s a free bus.).
Self-toured and met a couple of friends who are really happy there and say the kids are very chill and not competitive (one described fellow students as all “camp counselor types” – yay, D was a camp counselor!). Friends say it’s not hard to change majors (except not into CS) and taking classes outside their major is generally doable although some classes will get filled by those in the major.
One friend is in CS and said some kids who don’t maintain the GPA to declare CS will switch to game design or computer engineering. That friend picked UCSC over SLO because he thought it had a better CS program and he preferred UCSC’s progressive political climate. Another family friend graduated CS 8yrs ago and previously told us UCSC is strong in game design and that UCSC preps you more for grad school, SLO more for industry. Both said Intro classes can be huge but broken up with TA’s.
Couldn’t enter, but engineering buildings looked newer from outside and pics of inside look nice (I don’t really know how to judge. ) The college/dorm for Science Technology & Society looked beautiful (again outside view only) but is at the top of a steep hill.
D loves the trees and thinks they’ll be a great setting to de-stress from a CS curriculum, but also wishes the campus had more traditional gathering spots (she likes big grassy quads full of people hanging out). Maybe we just missed them on our self tour, but it seemed there were only pockets of green spaces for gathering (watering lots of grass seemed anti-environmentalist so I’m guessing there just weren’t any), and it’s mostly forested hills.
So it always felt like we were on a solitary nature hike or on our way to a campground rather than a college campus. Maybe it’s because I’m out of shape, but it felt like you had to hike through a ravine or cross tall bridges to get from building to building, so we weren’t interacting with people as much as trees. I’m more a city girl so not a campus for me; possibly good for D. But as much as she loves nature, I’m not sure if she’s enough of a nature-lover for the setting. OTOH, maybe the setting will make her even more of a nature-lover.
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SLO - D liked the campus and setting and thought everyone was really nice. We visited SLO (and UCSC) during a heatwave so she didn’t believe me that the climate is usually perfect in both locations.
It was a super lively, festive campus with the Cal Poly Admitted Student events going on, huge difference from the empty campus over the summer. We met a couple of friends who are both very happy. They said the students are friendly and not competitive. One recently transferred into Computer Engineering from a different college. She said it was really hard to do, but that it is doable and it should be easier for D to change out of her major since she’s admitted to Software Engineering.
Super cute and lively downtown area but like UCSC not walkable from campus (also has a free bus). The on campus offerings look nice too, with cute coffee shops, food trucks, etc, and there are tons of places for kids to hang out which D really liked. She prefers a more traditional college campus with brick buildings and quads (like OSU), but overall liked the campus.
We only went to the Friday Admitted Students Day which was crowded but fairly well organized. There wasn’t a lot of communication (or my D missed it), so she was late or missed some events (sharp learning curve for her on that adulting thing). When the large group was broken down into colleges, we heard from the Dean of the College of Engineering who seemed really down to earth and approachable. I think all the faculty gave that vibe too, which was really encouraging.
So many buildings looked brand new and with cool designs – it did not feel at all like what I’d imagined a state school would be. Until we got to the engineering buildings. 
Wow, after eyeing all the shiny new buildings and dorms, I was so disappointed to see the old school chalkboards in what looked like my old run-down high school classrooms.
But, when D came out of that room’s Comp Sci info session, her face was lit up as she was excited to hear what the professors were doing. She said they were really nice and seemed really approachable and supportive of students. It was the most interested in the school she’d been all day. (So much for my judging the school by the chalkboard). She didn’t get to meet any CS/SE students though, which she would’ve liked as she didn’t know if there’d be enough students nerdy like her, so she’s trying to reach out on her own.
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Wesleyan - Glad we made the visit because it helped D see that prestige does not equal fit. It was a beautiful campus, admissions were super accommodating before and during visit, kids on campus were friendly offering directions etc. We couldn’t make admitted students’ day, but she did a Day Visit where she got to shadow a current student – she ate lunch with him, attended 2 classes with him, etc. The kids and profs were kind and welcoming and she enjoyed the classes, but she just didn’t feel wowed by the school. At least not $85k/year wowed (phew!).
I think online and in virtual sessions the school felt right, but in person the overall vibe felt like a wealthy boarding school which she wasn’t comfortable with. Also downtown had some cute shops and restaurants but felt a little abandoned (but maybe we visited on an off day).
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WPI - D didn’t want to like the school because we’ve been reading about the suicides, overenrollment housing and class registration problems, advising issues, etc, plus it’s so far from home. But it ended up being the first time I saw her starry-eyed and excited at a school (I wasn’t on the MIT trip but she said it gave her the same feeling).
Admitted Students Day programming was okay, but I would’ve liked a full day to learn more. There were only 4 session times with about 7 session options for each time slot, which was hard for D to choose from since she was interested in so many areas. Also not great that we had to use one of those 4 sessions to get a campus tour.
D attended the CS, Game Design, and Humanities sessions and really liked the offerings (although we’re still not sure if there are enough options if she decides not to do CS). In contrast to SLO, Pitt and OSU, where D was scheduled to attend only the CS breakout sessions, she enjoyed being able to pick from different subject areas and really appreciated what felt like was a glimpse into the flexibility of WPI. Campus was much larger than I expected and the facilities were nice. D loved the buildings, makerspace, and open green spaces. The surrounding area seemed to have sparse restaurant offerings, so would’ve liked more.
A student activities fair was going on as the Admitted Students Day was ending, so D got to meet and interact with a lot of students, whom she loved. These were definitely her people and so now we’re struggling with whether, besides the right kids, if this is also the right school, especially if she doesn’t do CS or something else WPI is strong in. After the visit she learned a current student attended her high school, so she’s chatting with him to learn more.
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